A group of 18 overseas students volunteering for Shanghai University’s charity society visited Shanghai Healing Home, an orphanage in the city’s Pudong New District, bringing gifts from teachers and students for the children on May 17.

Shanghai Healing Home was founded in 2009 by a husband-wife team originally from the United States. It operates charity orphanage school that provides free surgery for abandoned babies with cleft palate deformities and other correctable medical conditions. It has already helped 143 orphans and currently houses 37 children aged six months to six years old.

The volunteers arrived at noon in time for the children’s lunch and helped the onsite nurses feed many of the children with cleft palates. The Shanghai students also brought new bibs for the children.

The volunteers learned about the children’s lives at the orphanage, many of which are filled with hardship on account of the range of conditions including those with cleft palates, congenital heart diseases, Down syndrome, and limb deficiency.

The painful reality is that many of these children have been abandoned by their parents and the volunteers hope that through their visit and the loving care of the onsite nurses, the children are able to feel the compassion that exists in the world. As one Pakistani student put it; “life is life when you serve humanity.”

The visit gained strong support from teachers and students at the university’s international exchange school and received a range of donations including food, medicine, clothing, and daily necessities. One school official noted that it will organize more such activities in the future so as to give back to those in need.

Foreign volunteers pose for a group photo at the Shanghai Healing Home on May 17. [Photo provided to study-shanghai.org]